Monday, March 4, 2013

Apollo tribute

This is a favorite lunar photo by Apollo 16's John Young, of Charlie Duke and the rover at Plum Crater, which drastically slopes away, down into its depths. The names listed are those of every person who traveled to our nearby moon, with 12 of them who walked on the lunar suface. The rover's TV camera also captured this photographic moment, with Duke's back to the TV viewers as Young took his 'pan series' of shots at this geology stop, Station 1. ( photo: AS16-114-18423 )

The powerfully attractive "fake-lunar-landings" myth has become increasingly popular, especially among people who will probably never bother to read the fabulous & definitive Andrew Chaikin book, "A Man on the Moon", or spend time investigating the extensive website "Apollo Lunar Surface Journal", or view hundreds of hours of mission footage DVD's from "Spacecraft Films" ... getting to know a little better some of the people who made Project Apollo a reality.

Some folks remain skeptical about the successful manned space missions of the 1960's and '70's, given that most modern-day government agencies now exhibit such extreme inefficiency, corruption, and wastefulness. The ColdWar and SpaceRace did provide a unique set of circumstances for the pursuits of space exploration, and the obvious target of the only close destination in the neighborhood, the Moon. And while I probably need not concern myself with what various skeptics choose to believe, it does seem a shame that they would deny themselves the enjoyment of some of the most awesome and amazing journeys ever taken by human beings.

For an entertaining glimpse into the lunar adventure, I have assembled the tribute project, "Welcome to the Moon", a collection of audio-visual clips from the Apollo missions, with original progressive-rock music soundtracks.

Here is another very favorite shot - a view out the window during Apollo 15's pass over the Sea of Serenity. The original picture ( photo: AS15-87-11709 ) can be viewed at the "Apollo Lunar Surface Journal" site. I have turned and cropped the image, to highlight the incredible landscape which the astronauts saw below them.